Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Claoxylon angustifolium Mull.Arg.


Shrub (woody or herbaceous, 1-6 m tall)
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Leaves and fruit [not vouchered]. © A. Ford
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Mueller Argoviensis, J. (1865) Linnaea 34: 165. Type: In Nova-Hollandia ad Port Demison (F. Mueller! in hb. DC.).

Common name

Claoxylon, Narrow Leaf; Narrow Leaf Claoxylon

Stem

Can grow into a small tree but usually flowers and fruits as a shrub to 4 m tall.

Leaves

Leaves linear, usually about ten times as long as wide, about 8-22 x 0.5-2 cm. Lateral veins forming loops inside the blade margin. Two small stipule-like glands may be visible on the upper surface of the leaf blade at its junction with the petiole. Leaf bearing twigs pale and marked by paler lenticels. Stipules small and inconspicuous.

Flowers

Pedicels long and slender. Flowers about 2 mm diam. Stamens about 7-12. Staminal filaments glabrous, much wider than the anthers. Staminodes short and green. Ovary distinctly 3-lobed and clothed with white appressed hairs. Each stigma swollen and thickened towards the base.

Fruit

Fruits green when ripe. Outer surface of the fruit clothed in short white hairs. Capsules small, about 4-5 x 6 mm.

Seedlings

Cotyledons +/- obovate, about 9-14 x 5-10 mm. First pair of true leaves linear, margins toothed. Hypocotyl glabrous, stem above the cotyledons clothed in pale prostrate hairs. At the tenth leaf stage: leaves linear, lateral veins forming distinct loops inside the blade margin. Stipules less than 1 mm long. Seed germination time 124 to 302 days.

Distribution and Ecology

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1000 m. Grows as an understory plant in wet sclerophyll forest and in the drier rain forests.

Synonyms
Mercurialis angustifolia (Mull.Arg.) Baill., Adansonia 6: 322(1866).
RFK Code
3069
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